Actually, Fastolfe, you're right. If Perl? had been
deleted after being declared a known troll post, which would
have been after the first reply by the same(?) Anonymous
Monk, more downvotes (votes in general) would have been
conserved for praising good posts or actually downvoting bad
but otherwise non-troll posts.

But, OTOH, this makes vroom's life more complex since
he would have to be vigilant to the threat of trolling posts.
(vroom in this context may or may not consist of multiple
editors with vroom-like power to remove trolling posts.) It
is the whole argument of the /. v trolls issue or the
possibility of crying homework. I'm for removing trolled
nodes, but beyond something as blatant as Perl?, who
decides to pull the plug?